Five home guards, policeman killed

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 July 2001, 10:21 GMT]Five home guards were killed in an ambush by the Liberation Tigers at Nugathenna in the Welikanda police area, about 65 km. north west of Batticaloa on the Valaichenai-Colombo trunk road around 9 a.m. Tuesday, police sources said.

The attackers removed four assault riffles from the victims, the sources said.

The home guards were on their way to provide security to local Sinhhala farmers, the sources added.

The Home Guards are a paramilitary force deployed by the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence in the Sinhala border villages in the northern and eastern parts of the island. They are trained by the Sri Lanka Army and Police. Home Guards supplement the Sri Lankan army wherever it is deployed thinly on the ground.

In a separate incident a policeman was shot dead by an unidentified armed youth in the high security zone of the north-western Mannar town around 10.30 a.m. Tuesday.

He was attached to the Counter Subversive Unit (CSU) of the police at sector 10 in Uiylankulam, police sources said.

The police said they have detained a 45-year old man, Rasu Ramasamy on suspicion following the incident.